tonight at input2008: ousmane sembene inside out

“Of all African film directors, Sembene is the first to confer value to images.” — Med Hondo

“The work of an African filmmaker is to find a way that is his own and to find his own symbols, even to create symbols if he has to.”Interview with Ousmane Sembene by Dr Harold Weaver

The aim is to create a discourse at Input2008 that goes well beyond Ousmane Sembene, the man and his work; to track the impact of African cinema on the world with Sembene as a founding father.

Sembene said: “Cinema is a night school,” and on a continent where literacy is low, public broadcasting can serve as a short but effective route to a bright and hopeful future.A formal independence has taken place, a political independence on paper, but now we must forge an independence of the minds, a cultural independence.

Discussion will be fueled by extracts from Sembene’s works (Moolaade and Faat Kine) as well as the Manthia Diawara film Sembene Ousmane, the Making of African Cinema.

Speakers

Seipati Bulane-Hopa –Secretary General of FEPACI, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers.